Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written by: Mohammad Al Amin, Journalist, AOPG

In its early stages, the advent of AI technology created substantial disruption across various industries, akin to the introduction of the telephone, which displaced traditional communication methods like letters. This transformation had a profound impact on postal service providers at the time.

But, unlike today, society back then didn’t have easy access to information, as modern-day society does, which has allowed people, businesses, and industries to quickly adopt and integrate new technologies into their daily operations.

Against this backdrop, IBM hosted the IBM Technology Innovation Forum 2023 at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, focusing on the adoption and integration of AI technology in business operations. The forum featured a lineup of exceptional speakers, with a select few delivering presentations that truly distinguished themselves by highlighting intriguing insights. Among these, Kitman Cheung, IBM’s Software Technical Sales Leader, delivered a poignant reminder that the AI inflexion point is an inevitable reality.

The emergence of ChatGPT only serves to accelerate that point but at the cost of causing major disruption that sparked excitement, as well as concerns among the public, employees, and businesses. Kitman pointed out that there are supporters of both extremes; one is welcoming and wants more freedom in utilising AI, while the other raises concerns over the prospect of developing AI technology. “But I think the reality is that we need to move forward while being mindful of what we do. We need to stay focused and use AI for good,” said Kitman as he explained how society should view AI technology integration into both business and daily lives.

The Printing Press Example

Affirming his stance and view on the matter, Kitman shared a very interesting analogy and story as an example: “I always use this example — the printing press. The Gutenberg printing press was invented around 1440 and was founded by Johannes Gutenberg. There was a lot of resistance from the church, there was a lot of fear. Why? Because to some extent, the church leaders wanted to control information. However, the printing press disseminated knowledge to everyone. So, there was a fear in terms of what it [the printing press] can do.”

Current fear stems from the lack of understanding of the good AI technology can provide for the present and future. This fear clouded society’s perspective on the potential and capabilities of AI technology. With proper guidance, transparency, and governance, a well-developed AI technology can pave the way to a better life and future. From expediting the time needed to produce dozens of contents per day to analysing subjects such as medical research, like the current IBM collaboration with Moderna, researching mRNA vaccines and using generative AI to create new drugs and vaccines.

In a proactive endeavour to ensure responsible and effective utilisation of AI technology in business settings, IBM has introduced the WatsonX initiative. This AI technology is designed for seamless deployment and integration within a company, offering scalable solutions while implementing robust data access and governance measures to safeguard against data leakage.

Securing AI the IBM Way

In another presentation, Ajay Kumar, Technical Sales Leader, IBM Security Asia & ANZ, explained that IBM has already employed AI as a part of their cybersecurity measures extensively to combat hackers. According to him, some business leaders reuse their personal passwords for their business accounts, which puts their company assets at risk of being stolen.

For example, to identify whether the individual accessing the account and data is the authentic user or not, the IBM cybersecurity model uses AI and machine learning to capture every detail of the user’s activity when accessing their account and data such as the usual time they will log in or the usual devices they use to log in. If their cybersecurity model detects high-risk actions (not the usual log-in time, etc.), the activity will be flagged and denied access. Kumar stated that incorporating AI and machine learning into their cybersecurity strategy has significantly enhanced their cybersecurity team’s ability to detect threats and identify critical data. This integration has, in turn, bolstered the security of vital information by effectively preventing unauthorised access.

Bolstering Cybersecurity with AI and ML

In a broader context, AI and machine learning play a pivotal role in bolstering cybersecurity efforts by facilitating early threat detection and pinpointing the specific data under potential attack. This, in turn, empowers cybersecurity teams to swiftly mount proactive defences against these threats, thereby ensuring the robust safeguarding of targeted data.

What can be gleaned from IBM Technology Innovation Forum 2023, is that AI technology has almost infinite potential; it can be utilised in many ways, not just as language models to generate written content. It can be used to predict weather conditions, assist scientists in important research, and aid in combating cyber threats. With a proper understanding of how to fully utilise AI technology, society will be able to take a single step forward to the next stage in the digital transformation journey.

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